So this year I decided I'd try a new medium. I wanted something that could give me non-hardening until I wanted a solid piece, and I remembered Brigitte Eberl using it a few years back (don't know if she still does) so I thought I'd try it. At first I thought I was crazy (and so did my friends), but the more I started using it, the more I LOVED it. Want to know what my new medium of choice is? Wait for it...Super Sculpey! Yes, the pink stuff you find at your local JoAnn Crafts. And I'm completely in love. It's much softer than I'm used to working with, but it moves much differently as well, which makes the softness okay. Also, I can "set" things in place with a heat gun when I'm finished with an area so I don't have to worry about smudging or taking a chunk of an area out with my nails (which I do all too frequently). Meanwhile, I can move legs and necks and tails and whatnot forward, backwards, and sideways to my heart's content and not have to worry about the stuff hardening in an hour. AND...this is the best part...because I can bake this guy to harden him, I can sand and work THIS copy, which saves me a weeks' worth of time and hundreds of dollars in making the waste mold. We can move straight on to one production mold. WOOTS! I will warn all of you aspiring sculptors now though, I consider this a more advanced medium to work with.
Anyway, info about the piece now. Sorry, I'm a shameless promoter of things I find that I fall in love with (like HD Bananas Foster, yum) and I tend to get sidetracked.
Meet "Quick Draw"! This boy is a traditional scale stock galloping stock horse (same size as the Rose Reiner). I think I'm going to make him a gelding unless all you all feel he needs to remain "intact". He's that nice roping horse type, which is good and thick, but not near a halter-breed horse's beefcake-ness. There's no TB influence in this guy! A friend of mine came to me last year at a show and told me she had plenty of ideas for my next "Performance Horse Series" piece. She and another friend had both been wanting a galloping stock horse with the back legs on the ground for probably a decade or more. She proceeded to tell me all the things she could do with a horse like that. Now, this gal is a big name in performance and one of the most fun and creative people I know...she could probably a NAMHSA Perf. Versatility Award cookie on horse that was laying down. But the enthusiasm she showed was catching. Besides I can't say no to her. She has been a long-time supporter of my work - ever since I was a little girl first starting to paint and hair with the rest of the crowd.